Media Reports Ohio Killer ‘Likely’ Got Guns Through Private Sales

Thomas Hartless may be the most appropriately named person (phonetically, anyway) we’re likely to encounter for some time. Hartless reportedly killed three people at the Pine Kirk Care Center in Kirkersville, OH in May of this year.

The man responsible for killing three people and then himself at the Pine Kirk Care Center in Kirkersville in May likely bought the firearms from a private sale.

This allowed him to skip a background check that would have revealed his prior felony conviction, which barred him from purchasing firearms.

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The files from the investigation into the May 12 shooting, conducted by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, were released to The Advocate earlier this week by the Licking County Prosecutor’s Office.

The file contains an audio recording of an interview done with Harry Hartless, the father of Thomas Hartless, hours after the shooting occurred.

As he is questioned by BCI detectives, Harry Hartless said he did not provide his son with any firearms or ammunition at any time, including during a meeting he had with his son around 2 or 2:30 a.m. on May 12 on the Dunlap Road bridge near Utica.

“He probably bought it at a gun show,” Harry Hartless said of the firearms used in Kirkersville. “That’s where he got every other (gun). He’d go to a gun show if he wanted a gun, if he saw a gun he liked.”

Sounds like a slam dunk for universal background checks, right?

Not really.

You see, Harry Hartless has some issues himself. About a month ago, it was learned that there is a restraining order against him by one of the nurses who survived the attack.

Two nurses, including a woman who was barricaded during the shooting attack in Kirkersville, told police Hartless was stalking the nursing home.

The women reported Hartless was parked in the alley behind the building, watching the staff and the buildings.

Police say one nurse used her cell phone to take photos which would later confirm Hartless’ license plate.

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A nurse obtained a civil stalking protection order and on Sunday, police arrested Harry Hartless for violating that protection order by being within 500-feet of the Utica Care Center.

Hartless pleaded not guilty to the charge during an arraignment hearing in Licking County court Monday afternoon. His attorney told the judge Hartless was only visiting his friend.

Ordinarily, one would be hardpressed to see what this has to do with anything, but the sole source for Thomas Hartless getting guns at gun shows–where most selling firearms would have had to run a background check–is a man who allegedly felt the need to stalk the nursing home his son had shot up.

Maybe it’s me, but he may not be the most sound and trustworthy source for information.

The reality is that we’re very unlikely to find out how the younger Hartless got his firearms. The father may well have bought him guns. He may well have gotten then via private transactions. He may have bought them on the black market. We simply don’t know.

But you’ve got to love the media jumping on a less than trustworthy person’s reported speculation as to where the guns were bought. I’m sure the fact that it reinforces a pro-universal background check narrative is entirely coincidental.